On the New Year eve the national unitary enterprise "Belposhta"
received a collective address with the request the request to include
the private newspaper "Gazeta Slonimskaya" in the state
sale network of the national unitarian enterprise "Belsayuzdruk".
The address was signed by more than 300 citizens of the Slonim
district.

Several days ago the editorial staff of the
newspaper received an answer signed by the deputy director general on
exploitation Alena Skrypchyk, in which it was stated:

"Your
collective address, filed to the national unitarian enterprise of
postal communications "Belposhta", and also received from
the secretariat of the Chamber of Representatives of the National
Assembly of the Republic of Belarus concerning the inclusion of the
newspaper "Gazeta Slonimskaya" in the subscription catalog,
has been considered. I can tell the following about its
results:

Article 391 of the Civil Code of the Republic of
Belarus (further referred to as CC) establishes that physical and
juridical bodies are free in the conclusion of
agreements.

According to part 3 of Article 2 of the CC
participants of civil legal relations acquire and realize their civil
rights on their own will and in their own interests. They are free in
the determination of their rights and duties on the basis of
agreements and the establishment of any conditions of agreements
provided they don't contradict to the law.

On the basis of
point 1 of Article 17 of the Law #427-3 of the Republic of Belarus
"On Mass Media" of 17 July 2008, distribution of mass media
in conducted in conformity with the legislation of the Republic of
Belarus by the legal body which implements the functions of the
editorial board of the mass media, or on the basis of an agreement,
concluded with distributors of media production.

There is no
agreement between "Belposhta" and the editorial board of
the aforementioned edition, according to which this edition could be
included in the subscription catalog of the enterprise.

As far
as the duty to include any mass media in the catalog is not provided
by the legislation, the choice of printed editions for the catalog
with the aim of their further distribution by subscription is the
right of the national unitary enterprise "Belposhta",
implemented by it in conformity with the legislation.

On the
basis of the aforesaid, the distribution of the printed edition
"Hazeta Slonimskaya" must be conducted directly by its
editorial board."

It's worth mentioning that this
situation has a long story – it has lasted since the beginning of
2006, when "Hazeta Slonimskaya" and a number of other
independent printed editions were excluded from the list of the
centralized subscription of "Belposhta".